At the present time, telemarketing (i.e., marketing through the use of telephonic equipment) and other business, political, etc. communications utilizing telephonic communications with prospective purchasers, interviewees, and the like are known and utilized. Many of these systems and methods utilize what is referred to as Automatic Number Identification (ANI), which is a unique series of digits or pulses received from one of two sources. The ANI is a unique number identifying the telephone from which a telephone call is placed. The ANI may be received by the telecommunication equipment to which a telephone call is placed from a long-distance telephone company or from a local telephone company.
Sometimes, ANI is referred to as “Caller I.D.” These digits or pulses are received from the local telephone company which is utilized by the caller's telephone equipment. For all area codes including area codes 800, 888 and 900, ANI is provided. At the present time, a caller cannot block ANI.
Accordingly, a caller can be identified by the unique automatic number identification code received at the receiver's location. Thus, when a caller initiates a telephone call with, for example, a company offering products or services for sale and seeks to order products or services from the company, the company has the capability of uniquely identifying the telephone number used by the caller to make the telephone call through the ANI.
Another feature presently used by telemarketing and related businesses is known as Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS). DNIS is a feature that provides to the receiver of the telephone call the number the caller actually dialed (and thus the identity of the entity called). For example, a plurality of companies may utilize the same sales representative firm with each company maintaining a separate and distinct telephone number(s) so as to spread the cost of the sales representatives or interviewers among the plurality of companies.
Each of the companies advertises its respective telephone number(s) for use by those desiring to purchase its products and/or services. Arrangements can be made by such companies for each of the respective telephone number(s) to be received by the same sales representative firm (or by the company itself). The sales representative firm employs one or more telemarketing individuals to answer the calls. The individuals making the call are not aware that they are not talking directly to the person located at the company advertising the product and/or service. Since calls for a number of different products and/or services can be received by the same sales representative firm, the sales representative firm can be staffed so that the telemarketing individuals are busy speaking with callers a high proportion of the time. The individual companies may be charged by the sales representative firm on a per-call, per length of call or some other mutually agreeable basis.
At the present time, almost every prospective purchaser calling a telemarketing company receives the same offer or “script”. Thus a person likely to make a high value purchase is provided the same offer via the same prepared script as a person highly unlikely to make any purchase or a low value purchase. At times some telemarketers receive unique customer information when volunteered by the caller during the contact when relevant to the specific contact. This process requires the contact to provide information as to his or her identity or some other identifying factor to be of future value.
At the present time, companies that may take advantage of ANI for maintaining databases, do not utilize ANI to drive a unique experience, nor to update the database of customer activity until after the caller has made a purchase decision and the sales representative has finalized or closed the transaction. Additionally, each company maintains its own customer information including customer phone numbers and generally does not share the information with others. Accordingly, the purchaser information in the database does not automatically play a role in the interaction between the caller and the sales representative. Nor does industry wide information automatically play a role in such interactions.
The databases presently being compiled and indexed according to ANI contain valuable information regarding the activities conducted from various telephones.
The present systems that utilize ANI do not utilize the information to customize a “script” for the telemarketer or utilize ANI as a delivery mechanism to pull in computed modeling score(s) to increase the probability of a successful sale. Models are mathematical equations utilizing variables which are used in marketing to predict or anticipate the behavior of potential customers.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for utilizing ANI as a delivery mechanism to pull in customer identity and/or modeling score(s) so that a sales representative will be instructed regarding offerings to be made to callers based upon the activity associated with the telephone utilized by the caller through the use of the ANI. Additionally, the usefulness of the database increases as the amount of information in the database increases. Accordingly, there is a need for an ANI database containing information for businesses and others using telecommunications systems to share information and maintain an up-to-date database so as to communicate offerings to sales representatives during communications with prospective purchasers, so that the sales representative may communicate the offering to the potential customer.
Also, there is a need for the development of heuristic models to dynamically affect the telemarketing process to increase the probability of sales success, to increase average order value and improve prospective customer relationships utilizing ANIs and a database containing previous activity associated with the telephone having the ANI. It would be extremely useful to generate such modeling score(s) and provide scripts to sales representatives while the sales representatives are in real time telephonic contact with the prospective customer. It would also be of great industry value to lower costs and modify marketing efforts to align telemarketing costs and media spending with customer value.
There is also a need for an apparatus and method for selecting customized marketing materials and the like to be included with orders being fulfilled, such customization based in part upon the activity conducted from the telephone (and its unique ANI) used by the respective customers.
There is also a need for post-purchase or post-response marketing, sometimes referred to herein as second tier marketing, which provides a subsequent contact that is highly relevant to the individual. These messages can be delivered to the individual and utilize the modeling score(s) to increase communication relevance through channels such as e-mail, online, direct mail, print, catalog, or surveys.